GIVEN the publicity of the recent general election and the Roy Keane World Cup Saga, one would be forgiven for thinking that the National Roads Authority's Plan to construct a number of new road networks throughout County Tipperary had been forgotten about.
However, a recent and fully costed survey by the Campaign for Sensible Transport has put an issue which was in sharp focus a few short months ago firmly back in the minds or people in South Tipperary.
The CAST group, as they are better known, are made up of a number of road transport groups around the country including the Mid Tipperary Roads Group and, of course, the N8 action group known as NAG, under the chairmanship of Cahir native Joe Rea. While the group is not against improvements in road transport, far from it in fact, it believes that Governmental planned investment is weighted firmly in favour of five urban based routes and that important initiatives such as the Cashel by-pass may be delayed in favour of what the group describes as more prioritised routes. Coupled with this, the group is also heavily against toll roads and believe that huge savings can be made if this type of road network is abandoned.
According to the report adopting CAST priorities rather than those in the National Development Plan will give a massive saving of €17 billion over the long-term. This figure consists of immediate capital saving of €3 billion and long-term savings for road users and Irish taxpayers of €14 billion in toll charges. The CAST savings, while reducing costs, will, according to the report, effectively and efficiently deal with the present inter-urban roads backlog, particularly in relation to by-passes and will free up much-needed resources to prioritise already critical urban congestion problems.
Among the cost savings proposed include a reduction in construction costs of €2.6 billion, a reduction in land costs of €273 million, all of which can be achieved by using the existing road alignments where feasible. Coupled with this the report claims that savings would also be made on consultants'
fees and in relation to tolls where over €14 billion can be saved. The end proposals see a long-term saying of just over €17 billion.
Using such costings as a basis the CAST report makes a number of key recommendations; in particular it calls for the prioritising of all road investments in line with the backlog projects identified in the by now infamous 1998 'National Roads Needs Study' and in particular that all by-passes should proceed. Going along with such measures CAST also calls on the Government to suspend road projects which do not meet the National Roads Needs Study criteria and carry out an independent external audit and claim that a precedent has already been established on rowing back on major national projects as advocates of Stadium Ireland will readily testify.
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While there was much criticism through County Tipperary of the consultative approach the NRA used, the CAST recommendations are scathing in their criticism of it. The organisation calls for an increasing amount of transparency to be brought into the consultation process. They want a programme initiated, which will see citizen-participation and public accountability in infrastructure planning and implementation. While critics will, no doubt, argue that such a process has and will actively take place in all areas affected CAST specifically claims that the current process 'is a sham' in that public opinion in the main is not taken account of.
The report is also highly critical of the fact that five key routes were selected for priority while many other routes such as by-passes were neglected or put back. In order to re-address such an imbalance the group interestingly propose that a Department of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning, with an accountable National Transport Authority, be created. This would, according to the report, provide 'integrated transport and spatial planning to ensure that the places we live and work in are well planned and connect efficiently, making the best use of scarce resources in a balanced sustainable and publicly accountable
way. Other proposals include an end to the system of rewarding consultants on the basis of a percentage fee for the cost of the works as they claim that such a system can lead to serious over-engineering and cost escalation. Moreover, the group also
want the Government to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest of Board members or executives of all infrastructure implementation and planning authorities, so that the planning processes are seen to be beyond reproach.
One of the most controversial proposals, however, relates to Compulsory Purchase Orders, or CPOs. CAST have called for a reform of CPOs legislation in relation to the financial and amenity impacts of infrastructure projects on communities and adjacent properties, particularly private dwellings. They claim that voluntary and negotiated land transfer systems should be employed in the first instance, as is already the case with gas pipelines.
While one may not agree with all the proposals put forward by CAST, there is no doubting the genuineness of their intentions. Clearly a Department of Transport and Spatial Planning is needed as is a study similar to the one on Campus Ireland to see if the entire project is necessary. While calls for an improvement in the consultative process are likely to go unheeded the fact that finally the NRA recently became subject to the Freedom of Information Act should in theory at least mean that information will be more forthcoming in future. On the downside, however the Government look highly unlikely to compromise on one of the most potent weapons the NRA have, namely CP0s. Coupled with this, almost all the political parties in the run up to the recent general election claimed, privately at least, they would borrow for capital expenditure mostly for roads. It is against this climate that many will wait in the coming weeks to see if savings proposed by CAST are adopted in an way by the new government.
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